<p>So I'm a first year Pre-med student at UCSD. Throughout the year, I've been getting mostly As and Bs and have been doing well at school. However, this quarter, my dad once again becamee seriously ill again (he's had a rare pulmonary disease for a few years, but it got really bad to the point where he's had to be hospitilized). During this ordeal, I've pretty much had to go home and help my mom take care of him and just self-teach myself the material that we've been learning in all the classes and commuting about 4 hours whenever we have quizzes/exams.</p>
<p>I've done well in most my classes that I know so far (obviously there was a major grade dip to B- and Cs) considering my situation, however, in Dr. Johnson's Chem 6C class, I got an F and now I'm freaking out about a lot of things. I plan on retaking it to hopefully get an A in the class but I had some questions...</p>
<p>-Assuming I get an A in the retake this summer, how much will this affect my chances of getting into med school?
-Are med schools generally lenient if I were to explain my situation for why I got this grade?
-I know different universities do different things when it comes to GPA... so what does UCSD do? Do they keep the F factored into the GPA? Is the F dropped out completely from consideration? Do they take the average of the two grades? Something else?</p>
<p>I know this was long, but your help would be soooooooo greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>I don’t know about med school…but if it is anything like college acceptance…</p>
<p>From high school experience…ur freshman grades don’t even matter much, so if you got bad grades but high grades later on, it’s a good thing that they see improvement.
And there’s people who got an D junior year and retook for an A, got into ucla like that</p>
<p>If med school is different sorry but I think usually u are given a second chance</p>
<p>Maybe you should think about requesting an incomplete grade vs. the F. I’m not sure if they’re lenient or not… You should just ask the UCSD Med school what you should to do :<. </p>
<p>For the retaking class thing, I think you get to retake up to 2 classes to replace the grade completely but afterwards they average your two grades. Your F will still show up on the transcript.</p>
<p>I’m not sure any of us can really say much about what med schools would say. So like Penguin said, maybe call the UCSD Med school and just ask them in general what would happen with them or any other med school.</p>
<p>Sorry to hear about this though. Good luck with everything</p>
<p>uchogwarts: Med schools are much stricter than colleges are when it comes to acceptances. They absolutely look at freshman year grades. </p>
<p>Today is the last day to request an incomplete.</p>
<p>Don’t call UCSD med school to ask them what would happen, they’re busy and don’t care (no offense). There are academic advisors you can talk to in your college instead. Also, there are pre-med advisors that my friends have found to be helpful.</p>
<p>An F almost kills your chances, I think it’s better to face it than throw false hope. Unless you can get straight A’s to make up for it until you apply, Medical Schools really don’t see an excuse with an F. A C, however is definitely easy to overlook based on your family situation.</p>
<p>To answer your other questions, yes if you take it again, the F gets factored out of your GPA, however it still appears and Medical Schools will see it.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice you guys. I appreciate it. I tried to get an incomplete but the school wouldnt allow it.</p>
<p>I talked to a pre-med advisor at school and heres what he said (in case any of you are interested or curious).</p>
<p>Pretty much, he said while it will still appear on my transcript, it wont be factored into my UC Gpa. However, med schools will still take that grade and the grade I get in the repeat and average it to determine my grade in the class. So essentially, if I get an A, med schools will count the grade as a C. He also said not to worry too much about how med schools will view it since I have several reasons that affected me academically this year (family finances, dad’s health, family death, etc). He said as long as I state that in my explanation for any anomalies in my application part of the ACMS, the med schools may look at it lightly.</p>
<p>Actually, an F during that circumstance won’t really affect you once you just state bluntly what happened. Med school DO look at your freshman year, but they look more on the gradual increase in intelligence and maturity. One F is not going to kill your chances. Research and good grades overall your four years will get you in. </p>
<p>I have been to some informational meeting with people asking such questions, and grad school app viewer say that one or two bad grade (assuming you retook the course and got a A or B) will not hurt you because they understand your issue (if stated in your essay).</p>
<p>Woah, I’m actually surprised at the lenience with an F. I’m not sure if that’s the same for every medical school though. You will be competing with people who never got an F. Admissions to Medical school is all about trying to look better than 95% of the other applicants. </p>
<p>I do believe the average GPA to get into medical school out of UCSD undergrad is around 3.6-3.7. I’m sure if you are around there or higher, the F may not hinder you based on their response. </p>
<p>Christian Wu: You know there are plenty of people that get into medical school without research right? Research actually looks better to PhD programs.</p>
<p>Well yeah, the F will affect him for the big time schools. But if you’re applying to middle range schools, it shouldnt matter as much as long as he does well (meaning all As for the repeat and all of his remaining classes the next 3 years).</p>
<p>Yeah. If you fail a course, grad schools still count that, but they just average you’re new grade and failed grade and use that when they calculate your overall GPA</p>
<p>But, it’s not like you can just hide it away in the GPA, the fact of the matter is, admissions officers will still see an F in a Chemistry course, which is a prereq to be considered by the medical school. It’s not gonna be easy for him to get in.</p>
<p>Wait, so for the record, if you get an F (0.0) in a 4 unit class and then an A (4.0) in that same 4 unit class, that mathematically counts as a C (2.0) in a 4 unit class? Not a C in an 8 unit class? I know for law schools it would mathematically count as a C in an 8 unit class.</p>
<p>Let’s just say the people I know that actually got into medical school right out of undergrad didn’t have anything near an F, let alone even having a C. It’s that competitive. There is always the option of working for a year to build up your resume to eventually apply.</p>
<p>Just never overestimate yourself and try to avoid anything under a B. Stay on top.</p>